My own view is that Lucas screwed up Star Wars when he came to Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) as the Hero of his saga instead of the villain:

To those of us who went to the original movies when they first came out, Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker and his companions – especially rogue Han Solo – as they rebelled against the evil empire which was personified by the great villain Darth Vader.

Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker is the bad guy. George Lucas thinks he is the star or hero. That is why the episodes 1 thru 3 suck pretty much.

Heh…the Darth Vader-as-Hero thing got me ranting on a younger co-worker this week who said it the plan along to have the saga revolve around Vader. It wasn’t. Vader-as-hero-journey is how Lucas “improved or upgraded” from his original idea of “The Adventures of Luke Skywalker”.

This is the Bad Guy. He is not the Hero. I don’t care what George Lucas thinks.

But there’s no story past Episode VI, there’s just no story. It’s a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies, that’s kind of the end of the story. There is no story about Luke Skywalker, I mean apart from the books.

That’s the problem right there.

It’s a certain story about Anakin Skywalker…

To those of us who went to the original movies when they first came out, Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker and his companions – especially rogue Han Solo – as they rebelled against the evil empire which was personified by the great villain Darth Vader.

Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker is the bad guy. George Lucas thinks he is the star or hero. That is why the episodes 1 thru 3 suck pretty much.

Episode 6 sucks a little, partially by rehabilitating Darth Vader – and excusing all the evil he has done (also by introducing the marketing friendly cutesy Ewoks).

David Brin has also de-constructed the ideology and philosophical notions behind Star Wars quite ruthlessly here, here, here, here and here. These should be read by all.

Rant out!

Note to George Lucas: This is your villain character, not your hero character!

I am a US Citizen living in Milwaukee WI. I have interests in IT, information security, CyberWar, national security, fifth generation warfare (5GW), history, public policy, entrepreneurship, economics, pop culture and the future.